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wcaseym (83.90)

The United States of Inequality

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November 13, 2010 – Comments (3)

The U.S. now has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics! Good 10-part series.

Good readin'

C.

In the late 1970s, a half-century trend toward growing income equality reversed itself. Ever since, U.S. incomes have grown more unequal. Middle-class incomes stagnated while the top 1 percent's share of national income climbed to 24 percent. Middle-income workers no longer benefit from productivity increases, and upward mobility, long the saving grace of the American economy, has faltered. Why is this happening? In the following 10-part series, Slate's Timothy Noah weighs eight possible causes of what Princeton economist Paul Krugman has labeled the Great Divergence. This 30-year trend "may represent the most significant change in American society in your lifetime," Noah writes, "and it's not a change for the better."

http://www.slate.com/id/2267157/

3 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On November 13, 2010 at 9:40 PM, outoffocus (24.55) wrote:

While this essay brings up many good points, it seems to fail to address the role inflation over the past 4 decades played in the growing income equality, which makes the essay in my eyes incomplete.  Yes the essay does address the rise in consumer debt over that time but it doesnt address how the costs of food and housing (now excluded from CPI calculations) led to the rise of consumer and mortgage debt.

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#2) On November 13, 2010 at 10:09 PM, zymok (42.97) wrote:

Food and housing are included in the CPI.

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#3) On November 13, 2010 at 10:24 PM, devoish (98.73) wrote:

Absolutley awesome, and to me painfully obvious, article. I would have disagreed with some of his percentages and categories but the article is so basically correct that semantics do not matter.

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